The story behind Professional Heckler’s Twitter suspension

The Twitter account of social media personality "Professional Heckler" was suspended on Saturday. Tweets from President Rodrigo Duterte's supporters imply that they have collectively reported his account. (Art by Uela Badayos)

Supporters of “Professional Heckler” suspected that supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte have reported his account.

This is not a surprise since pro-Duterte bloggers have emerged on social media ever since Duterte took office. They are keen on calling everything (or anyone) that is critical of the administration as “fake news.”

Some of the most famous ones in social media are RJ Nieto (Thinking Pinoy), Sass Sassot, Carlos Munda (MindaNation) and Mocha Uson, among others.

Duterte supporters call for mass reporting

A Twitter account calling itself “United DDS” openly thanked Twitter for suspending the account of “Professional Heckler,” saying that the latter is a “purveyor of fake news.”

When the account of “Professional Heckler” was restored, the “United DDS” account called for a renewed “mass report” of “Professional Heckler’s” account.

“United DDS” describes itself as the collective voice of Filipinos who fully support the Duterte administration. It was created in July 2016, the first month after Duterte became the president.

Under Twitter’s guidelines, an account may be suspended for the following reasons:

Spam —If the user shares “spammy posts” or is a fake account;

Account security at risk — If the user’s account was hacked by someone else;

Abusive tweets or behavior —If the user’s account was reported due to it being “abusive.” According to Twitter, they may suspend it temporarily or permanently if it sends threats or impersonates other accounts. — Art by Uela Badayos